Street vendor fearing for his life during the time of COVID-19

By Asiphe Mangumta

“During the pandemic facing the world, fear has a room in street vendors trying to make a living for themselves and their loved ones; “it must be business as usual?”. As the number of those infected continues to grow, panic and fear grows for the young mind” Joseph Baloyi( 23), is a street vendor selling fruits,vegetables and snacks at the busy taxi junction , Katlehong. The young man has been a vendor since 2013,he is trying to make a good living for himself. This pandemic is the first that has affected the way he works and also made him doubtful of selling, but “it has to be business as usual” he said. Joseph has been following all the safety measures advised on the News by the President, He try to be safe and also ensures the safety of his customers. He uses water with soap to wash his hands and also offers his customers. He also uses sanitizer to wash/pray his fruits, and use plastic bags for the customers to use when touching his fruits.

Joseph said, coronavirus makes it difficult to work with his customers as some forget to follow procedures, some don’t even take it serious and most of customers including other vendors don’t have much information on this Virus. He believes that lack of finance will also cause another panic for them when they run out of sanitizers and soap. Joseph only hopes that the coronavirus will vanish as quickly as it came to South Africa, “I just hope this will be over soon, because jobs are at risk and also unemployment rate problem is going to start going up fast”, said Joseph. The young mind is set to continue to sell, but would like to know more about the virus and how he can ensure safety for him and his customers. He state that some of his concerned customers advised him to close because his business is next to a busy main road and people from far places like Pretoria etc. get off there. They think he can easily get infected, but he continued as he has no other way. He believes that at some point the government will come at their rescue and work hand in hand to save people from this virus “COVID-19”.